Ash Wednesday

Tonight we celebrated Ash Wednesday at an ecumenical prayer service. It is a Christchurch tradition that the Catholic and Anglican communities take turns hosting the service, and this year it was held at the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral. The Catholic Bishop for this diocese, Most Reverend Barry Jones, concelebrated with the Anglican Bishop, Right Reverend Victoria Matthews. Choirs from both churches provided moving hymns, chants and anthems. The little boys, singing the treble notes for the Anglican choir, were adorable in their frill-neck robes. In the spirit of ecumenism, different members of the two congregations proclaimed the readings and the Prayers of the Faithful. Bishop Jones read the gospel and was the homilist, drawing upon much of Pope Benedict’s Lenten message.

We loved noticing the things that were different about the two church celebrations and noticing things that were very much the same. I recognized the opening and closing hymns from way-back-when. The liturgy followed very closely the Liturgy of the Word that we celebrate in the States and much of the rest was very similar to services outside the Mass. Ashes were distributed by both bishops and their ordained administrators. The most striking difference was that the Lord’s Prayer was recited in Maori!! We all agreed that this was our favorite part of the day.

After the liturgy, we introduced ourselves to Bishop Jones and gave him greetings from the Diocese of San Bernardino, in California, USA. He seemed happy to meet us and pleased that we are celebrating Sunday Masses at his Cathedral.